South Africa congratulates Mugabe on 'successful' vote

South African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday congratulated Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe for his re-election in a "successful" vote, and called on
opposition to drop its objections to the result.

By Damien McElroy and agencies

9:58AM BST 04 Aug 2013

President Zuma extended his "profound congratulations" to his Zimbabwean counterpart, a statement from South Africa's foreign ministry said.

"President Zuma urges all political parties in Zimbabwe to accept the outcome of the elections as election observers reported it to be an expression of the will of the people," it said.

Meanwhile Australia joined the United States and Britain in questioning the credibility of elections in Zimbabwe as Bob Carr, the foreign minister, called for a re-run of the polls.

Zimbabwe's 89-year-old Robert Mugabe won a landslide victory in last week's presidential and parliamentary polls, but his rival Morgan Tsvangirai described the vote as "fraudulent" and vowed to boycott the government.

Mr Carr said he was calling for fresh elections after concerns had been raised, including by Australia's embassy in Harare, about the voters roll and voting procedures.

"These appear to have disenfranchised large numbers of voters and raised doubts about the credibility of the election results,"

In an impassioned press conference on Saturday, Mr Tsvangirai, 61, said he would he “not legitimise the illegitimate”, claiming that victory was stolen from his Movement for Democratic Change party by massive voter fraud orchestrated by Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.

“This fraudulent election has plunged Zimbabwe into a constitutional, political and economic crisis,” he said. “I hope that every Zimbabwean knows that we have to resolve this crisis. How long will it take? I don’t know.”

Mr Tsvangirai called for a “forensic” audit of the voters’ roll and pledged to hand a dossier of evidence of vote-rigging, intimidation and ballot stuffing to regional bodies – the African Union and the Southern African Development Community – who both recently rubber-stamped the vote.

He called on both bodies to meet urgently to chart a way forward, and for Zimbabwe to hold new elections, that would be “free, fair and credible”.

He denied reports that he and key colleagues had been asked to join the Zanu PF government and angrily rejected suggestions by the region’s leaders that he back down.

“If people think they have resolved the issues by asking Tsvangirai to legitimise the illegitimate, I will not do it,” he said. “The people of Zimbabwe will not do it. Those who would like to wash their hands over the issue, they will do so but all of us have to live with this on a daily basis.”

He also rejected suggestions that the MDC should not have taken part in the election because of its concerns about voter fraud and outstanding reforms.

“We don’t regret participating because our people participated in this election generally believing that it would deliver the change that they have hoped for for so long only to be short-changed by a predetermined process which undermined their confidence, hope and aspirations, that’s why instead of celebration, there is national mourning in the country,” he said.

“We did not lose this election – we won this election. It is the imagination of Zanu PF that has won this election,” he said. “This is not a personal issue – it is not Tsvangirai who has lost. I have the full backing of the people of Zimbabwe.”

Asked what concrete plans he had to change the result, he said: “Our people have made the sacrifice and are hurting. We will go back to our people.”

But he ruled out the suggestion of any violent uprising as suggested by some elements of the party. He praised the “discipline” of his supporters, adding: “we don’t want any violent resolution to this crisis.”

Adding to the controversy surrounding the election, one member of Zimbabwe’s nine-member Electoral Commission, Mkhululi Nyathi, resigned on Saturday over the conduct of the elections in what was an explicit condemnation of how the vote was managed.

“I do not wish to enumerate the many reasons for my resignation, but they all have to do with the manner (in which) the ... elections were proclaimed and conducted,” Mr Nyathi wrote in a letter reportedly sent to both Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai.

“Throughout the whole process I retained some measure of hope that the integrity of the whole process could be salvaged along the way. This was not to be, hence my considered decision to resign.”

Mr Hague said in a statement: "The irregularities in the lead up to the elections and on election day itself, reported by the observer missions and in contravention of SADC's (the Southern African Development Community's) guidelines, call into serious question the credibility of the election."

Armed police and a water canon were stationed close to the venue where the presidential results were released, extending Mr Mugabe’s 33 years in power. Rugare Gumbo, Zanu-PF spokesman, said: “Our opponents don’t know what hit them.”

There has been no election violence so far and UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged both political rivals to send “clear messages of calm” to their supporters.

Independent observers and civil society groups believe that up to one million people, in mainly urban areas where MDC support is strongest, were denied the chance to vote.

Zanu PF’s chances may also have been bolstered by an army of ghost voters according to analysis from the Research and Advocacy Unit. They found 370,000 people with identical names and birthdays, and similar identity numbers, on the voters’ roll that was released at the end of May.

But without access to an electronic copy of the latest electoral list, there is no proof of the full scale of vote rigging and whether it would have made a difference to the outcome.

By the time it can be fully assessed and the various African observer missions have released their final reports on Zimbabwe’s elections, Mr Mugabe will have been sworn back in to office and appointed his new cabinet.

As the dust settles to reveal Zanu PF’s massive electoral victory, questions are now being asked about what the future holds for a Zimbabwe still scarred by its brutal past.

Despite fractious relations in the coalition government, it has presided over the return of food back to supermarket shelves, petrol to the pumps and money to the cash machines.

The decision to abandon Zimbabwe’s hyper-inflated currency in favour of the US dollar was largely credited for the turnaround.